She would not see him for some days. They were to arrive on Tuesday, and Lady Catherine had only invited them to cards and dinner onThursday.
Amplefurthernights to roll about sleeplessly, thinking thoughts about the thoughts of a man whom she had already refused, and whom she did not love. Or maybe she did, she wasn’t sure.
Was there a sillier, more thoughtless creature in all of England than Elizabeth Bennet?
The question answered itself: No.
She resolved to think nothing further upon Darcy and only, as she had determined already, meet him as an indifferent acquaintance onThursday.
So saying to herself, Elizabeth picked up the pillow, and covered her eyes with it, intending to sleep, and think no more.
One sheep. Two sheep. Three sheep. Four sheep. What would Darcy think if I wore the green silk on Thursday?
He’d like it. It was her best dress for the spring weather — fashionable and fetching.
He’d once said something about green being a good color for her complexion. And he always took his coffee without sugar, but with a surfeit of cream. She must remember what to give him if she had the opportunity to serve him coffee. With every likelihood it would be Miss de Bourgh who would be made to do the honors.
He surely did not likeher?
But perhaps after the choice of his heart had refused him, he would turn towards family connections and greater wealth.
No doubt that was the whole reason he had determined to visit Rosings: It was to at last court his cousin, and he was going to marry Miss de Bourgh, and she would have to watch him looking at Miss de Bourgh with that serious nodding intensity.
Those beautiful dark eyes.
And then he’d smile at Miss de Bourgh, and Elizabeth’s heart would clench, and she would imagine clawing the poor mouselike Miss de Bourgh to bits, but she wouldn’t say anything, or let anything be visible in her manner and eyes, but she’d go back home to this very bed, and cry her eyes out the night after they announced the engagement.
Oh, Lord! My dear mind, can you be quiet with these fevered fantasies, I am trying to sleep!
But he’ll be here — breathing the same air! In the same neighborhood! Less than half of a mile distant! Tomorrow!
Be quiet!
As it happened, despite her conviction that she was not to see Mr. Darcy untilThursday, that gentleman and his cousin came to pay their respects to the ladies of Hunsford Parsonage within a half hour of arriving at their aunt’s abode onTuesday. Further they brought along with them Darcy’s young sister Miss Georgiana Darcy.
The alacrity with which they made the call surprised Elizabeth at first. But in the moment of reflection she had between when the maid announced their visitors, and the entry into the room of the three, the dismayed thought crossed her mind that there was nothing more natural than for them to call early upon two friends.
It was a dismaying thought because Elizabeth had expected no such compliment to her and Charlotte, and therefore she had not dressed with any particular care this morning. Elizabeth had not examined herself closely in the mirror, but she was sure that she must have quite noticeable bags about her eyes due to the difficulty she had sleeping the two nights previously.
Ugh.
And what would he think when he saw that—
They entered the room.
Elizabeth’s eyes stuck on him, and his stuck on her.
He nearly filled the whole doorway, towering above Charlotte’s maid of all work who stood holding the door open. He paused and seemed unable to move, but then at a grunt from Colonel Fitzwilliam standing behind him, Darcy hurried into the room, bowed over Elizabeth’s hand, and made a formal request for information about how her father and mother did.
Before Elizabeth could reply, Colonel Fitzwilliam bounded forward, first heartily shaking Charlotte’s hand and then Elizabeth’s. “Allo, allo — haven’t seen you in months. Look better than ever. Tan and fine. Eh, Darcy?”
“Yes, certainly.” He studied her face. But his voice was restrained, and his manner reserved.
Teasing, twisted man — what did he think?
Miss Darcy cautiously creeped into the room following the two gentlemen. She was a lovely, well-formed girl, flaxen haired and taller than any of Elizabeth’s sisters. She had a shy quiet smile, and a persistent inability to meet the eyes of anyone but her cousin and brother.
Was it hope that made Elizabeth believe that Mr. Darcy was not wholly at his ease?
